Japan

Tokyo is a city of neighborhoods that don’t behave like they belong to the same metropolis. Each one has its own character, sometimes its own century. We stayed in Asakusa, at The Gate Hotel, a design hotel right across the street from Sensoji, one of Tokyo’s oldest temples. The smell of incense drifted in every time we walked out the front door. On another stay we tried Shiodome, home to The Park Hotel — a neighborhood that was marshland and a train station twenty years ago, and is now glass towers between Ginza and the harbor.

At night the city’s other side shows up in Shibuya, at Drunkards Alley — officially Nonbei Yokocho. It’s steps from the chaos of Shibuya Crossing and almost silent by comparison. The bars are stacked on top of each other, some with only four to six stools. The whole alley is easy to walk right past if you don’t know it’s there.